doesnt brown nose to, it takes its orders from the UN. may even take its orders from a higher group.

one has to also take into account the Australian Institute of International Affairs. would be interesting to see a members list. they are one of those NGOs. y'know, the sort of group thats full of unelected officials that work endlessly behind the scenes to influence a governments decisions.

If there was any proof that a political party is committed to the destruction of Australia, then this has to be it.

It truly is a measure of how sick our supposed 'leaders' have become when they spend precious taxpayers time and money defending these filth. The same scum that will continue to argue against the death sentence for child killers and rapists, etc, all in the name of a 'progressive' society.

Mr Howard, if you are so committed to a referendum on aboriginal 'reconciliation' then lets see a referendum on whether Australians want to continue with multiculturalism, non white immigration and the reintroduction of the death penalty. After all, we were never asked in the first place on these important issues.

Miranda Devine hits the nail on the head regarding Mc Clellands love of mass murderers.

Kevin Rudd's repudiation of the campaign by his foreign affairs spokesman to rid South-East Asia of capital punishment rings about as hollow as the campaign itself. The Opposition Leader has "counselled" Robert McClelland over his speech to a human rights group on Monday night, but McClelland was just expressing Labor Party policy, and that policy still stands.

For Rudd, McClelland's crime was his timing - in that he candidly trumpeted Labor policy before the election, not after.

But when it comes to human rights, whose rights take precedence? Those of the 202 victims or those of the bombers?

There are plenty of terrible things we don't like that happen elsewhere in the world. Why stop at capital punishment? What about the amputation of the hands and feet of thieves in Saudi Arabia? What about abortion? China's one-child policy is barbaric, with plenty of stories of women dragged off the street and forced to have late-term abortions, or female babies discarded after birth.

More to the point, why not address the situation in our own backyard, with an estimated 100,000 abortions being performed in Australia each year. Yet when the Health Minister, Tony Abbott, raised the high number as a problem and adopted mild reforms, such as pregnancy counselling, he was berated as a religious zealot and "misogynist prick" and regarded as having blown his career.

Human rights campaigners could save a lot more human souls by campaigning against late-term abortions than fretting about death rows in South-East Asia.

Amnesty International has been at the forefront of the campaign to save the Bali bombers from the firing squad, while at the same time it has changed its previous neutral stance on abortion to one of campaigning for its worldwide decriminalisation. And it had the gall this week to send British backpackers onto the streets of the city touting for donations. Hypocrisy and expediency smell the same on human rights posturers as on venal politicians.

In any case, public opinion is no more conclusively against capital punishment than it it is for abortion. People make nuanced distinctions in both cases, and are more inclined to favour the death penalty in extreme situations - such as child murder or the Bali bombings, just as they are less likely to support abortion for social or financial reasons.

When there are plenty of other human rights issues about which reasonable people can disagree, what makes capital punishment such a pressing concern at this time that McClelland and Amnesty feel the need to support the Bali bombers and stomp all over the sensitivities of the victims?

At least the episode gave us a rare insight into what life would be like under a Rudd government, as the Labor leader dropped his vigilance just a tad. It must be exhausting trying to disguise the true nature of your would-be regime.

LAWYERS for three Islamic militants on death row over the 2002 Bali bombings today flagged a new legal challenge to their impending executions.

Bali prosecutors had visited Batu prison to again ask whether the three would seek clemency from the president but were told by the head of the facility that "the three of them have rejected clemency'', he added.